Rakhigarhi now the biggest Harappan site after two new mounds discovered

The discovery in January of two new mounds at the ancient Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Haryana, India, now makes it the largest known site of the Harappan (Indus Valley) civilisation, even outdoing the well-known site of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan.

The Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation is one of the three oldest urban civilisations, along with Egypt and Mesopotamia, but it is the least understood. Its script is yet to be deciphered, and the knowledge of social structures and life during that period is scant. Rakhigarhi promises to change this as new discoveries continue to be made. It is one of the few Harappan sites which has an unbroken history of settlement—Early Harappan farming communities from 6000 to 4500 BC, followed by the Early Mature Harappan urbanisation phase from 4500 to 3000 BC, and then the highly urbanised Mature Harappan era from 3000 BC to the mysterious collapse of the civilisation around 1800 BC. That’s more than 4,000 years of ancient human history packed into its rich soil.